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Working at Home over 40 – Fast Track to Middle-Aged Wasteland?

Working from home, on your home, or partial telecommuting? With each passing year I meet more and more people who work from home for a variety of reasons, and despite what might seem like oceans of free time or an infinite flexibility in managing one’s own time, the reality is often the exact opposite. And, what often suffers in all the time constraints is one’s own physical and emotional health. Even if your home-based reality is for the most part a pleasant one, there are going to be days when all you want to do is pull on the sweatpants, slash open the potato chips, and giggle through a marathon of Modern Family reruns!

Not only is the middle-aged mind a terrible thing to waste, but your mind is a muscle that needs rebooting all the time! So, let’s accentuate the positive in looking at why women over 40 are working from home and how to make the environment more conducive to physical and psychological health. There are many productive and positive reasons women over 40 work at home, and many ways to offset the challenges that come with being “marooned” in a home office. Here are just a few:

Some women are working in their own businesses, or working with employers whose business models enable working from home, whether it’s full-time at home or flex-time. If you don’t have to report to an office even part of the time, that’s all the more reason to get out to breakfast, lunch or drinks with colleagues or other people in your industry.

Many women are working on their homes, or inside their homes, in some way while also earning a living. Working on a home could mean prepping for a sale, or downsizing and the clearing out that comes with both those transitions. Or, it could involve taking care of children and elderly parents – many boomers are doing both while also working full time. I had my own share of that all last year when my husband and I were trying to sell the lovely 200-year old Colonial we loved but had outgrown, and I had to commute back and forth from the north Jersey suburbs to our new home in Manhattan, where I also worked.

During really hectic times in your life, push yourself to carve out time just for you. I force myself to a gym several mornings a week, setting the alarm for 5AM, or go for a brisk walk while it’s still really early, just so that I don’t spend my entire day doing something for someone else.

Some women are working at home only until they land a new position in an office, a situation that makes it all the more important to be in “work-style mindset.” Job-hunters are the women I empathize with the most, because their identities are about work (work clothes, work habits, work skills), and they can’t predict how long the job search might be. Prepping or waiting for calls or emails about leads, decisions and other search issues often happens at home for some women. And, those are the days when it takes Herculean effort to bound out of bed, get to the gym, or outdoors. For sure, those are the days when you have to get out of the sweatpants and plan on healthful foods that will make you actually feel good, and schedule meetings outside your home. Better than hanging out at home or your local coffee shop consuming high-fat, high-salt or sugary comfort foods.

In the winter months when the weather is bleaker, it’s worse – but you have to get over it and get out! I get invited to lots of networking events – I could be out every night of the week! Some are well worth the outing, but others are not as productive. Regardless, I still push myself to go out on most nights. It’s just too tempting to hunker down in the biggest baggiest clothes I have and not even consider the thought of washing my hair, let alone putting on makeup! And those are the days that my time management habits go out the window, because I feel an expansive day ahead where I have all the time in the world to just “wallow.” Forget about it! I DARE you to just make yourself go. Interacting with other people – especially people who are different than you, is the best way to engage your social skills, broaden your horizons and make you more productive in your work at home.

Don’t let that precious middle-aged mind of yours go to waste!

PART TWO COMING SOON: a wake-up call you can’t ignore from top health experts.

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About Liz Weinmann

Elizabeth (Liz) DiMarco Weinmann is the author of "Get DARE From Here!™ - 12 Principles and Practices for Women Over 40 to Take Stock, Take Action and Take Charge of the Rest Of Their Lives." Get DARE From Here!™ is for all women over 40 who are fed up with being called cougars, cobras and crones, and who want instead to mash the myths, bash the biases and slam the stereotypes.

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